Agricultural harvesters use a variety of implements attached to their front ends to gather crops. One type of these implements is called a “draper” or a “draper header”. Conventional draper headers use conveyors with endless belts to carry cut crop material from leading-edge knives to center regions of the headers. From there, the cut crop material is conveyed into the harvesters. Once in the harvester, the cut crop material is further processed by separating grain from unwanted crop material (typically called “material other than grain” or “MOG”).
In some configurations, crop material can become lodged in various spaces on and around the belts, resulting in sub-optimal performance of the header. For example, some headers include crop ramps that extend rearwardly (from a frame of reference of the relevant vehicle) from the knives over the leading edge of the headers' endless belts. These crop ramps help to lift the cut crop material onto the endless belts for transport along the header. However, crop material can become lodged in gaps between the crop ramps and the endless belts, to the detriment of header performance. Crop material can also become lodged in, and pass through, other gaps along the belts. In some cases, this can require machine stoppage in order to clear crop material from the headers' internal areas.